During a college student's nurturing years in the higher education system, there are a few memorable moments when their inner voice/consciousness simply stops functioning and instead elects to... well... *shriek internally*. I consider this to be the point when the system malfunctions, must release built up tension, and reboot before it can continue to serve its purpose of guiding and advising that young person.
This past week, for me, has been a near 24 hour cycle of *shrieking internally* as it begins to dawn on me what I got myself into. Living and studying in Florence, Italy for four months is no small task. Especially when considering the only Italian I have under my belt is: ciao, fettuccini and pizza. Yikes. The program that I am studying through, API, kindly sent me a rather lengthy orientation packet to go through before flying across the Atlantic. This orientation is meant to guide us clueless Americans, helping us to be as prepared as possible to not do anything stupid while we are in Italy. This packet touches on pretty much everything, from discovering your cultural identity, to reading more about the (30+) political parties in Italy, to keeping alcohol consumption in check. (Apparently, American students are infamous for getting wasted while in Europe.. how surprising). It's all quite informative. And overwhelming. Thus the *shrieking internally*...Anyone have any Advil?
API has also encouraged us to write down goals and fears that we have for this experience. Below are some of the things that I consider to be worthy of achievement or worry. Hopefully knowing other people are aware of these goals and fears will keep me on task to conquering them.
Goals:
- Learn how to interact with different beliefs, perspectives, personalities, and cultures.
- Take advantage of, appreciate, and explore as many different places that I can.
- Connect with the history of my passion (art) in a very real way.
- Learn to relax, slow it down, and enjoy living in each precious moment.
- Diversify my circle of friends and branch as far out as possible.
- Develop the self-confidence I need to be a fully independent woman and pursue the adventures I dream about in the future.
- Find my inspiration again and create beautiful works of art.
Fears:
- I won't take full advantage of my time overseas and will waste the days away.
- Homesickness will get in the way of enjoying this experience.
- Safety (obviously)
- Running out of funds (Poor college student + Europe = very empty bank account)
- Culture shock
Let's see how well these play out during my next few months abroad.
In this blog, I hope to write at least two times a month, keeping whoever is interested up to date about my exploits. I've never blogged before, so if I ramble, I apologize. I am not known for being reserved. I also am going to try to post most of my photos on this blog instead of social media, if I can figure out how to do so. Feel free to ask questions, provide suggestions on how I can make this an easier read, or reach out in any way if you feel so inclined.
Living in another country has been an almost lifelong dream. Now that it is about to come to fruition, that dream has become a little terrifying. But, I can't live my life hoping to follow my dreams in an abstract, undefined future. In the words of Timothy Ferriss " 'Someday' is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you". Cheers to not letting this dream happen 'someday'.
Addio,
Leah
No comments:
Post a Comment